


Merger

by DameRuth



Series: Jed and Friends [2]
Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Alternate Universe, Multi, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-02
Updated: 2012-01-02
Packaged: 2017-10-28 18:29:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 11,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/310850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DameRuth/pseuds/DameRuth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jed Holbrook (who isn't Jack Harkness) has tracked down Rose and the Doctor to repeat his offer of a partnership.  Rose and the Doctor give his proposition serious consideration.  Direct sequel to <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/310789/chapters/497655">"Joint Venture."</a></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> My [Support Stacie](http://supportstacie.net/?page_id=221) fic for auction winners wmr/wendymr, Gillian_Taylor/dark_aegis and RobinC/lindenharp! They asked for a sequel to "Joint Venture." Thanks to Aibhinn for the beta!

Rose hadn’t been entirely serious about introducing Jed to her parents, but when they stepped into the living room, dimly lit by the fairy lights on the Christmas tree and a single lamp on its lowest setting, Pete Tyler was sitting on the sofa. He had his arms stretched along the back to either side and he was wearing a dressing gown over a t-shirt and track suit bottoms, but the pinpoint blue lights of his earpods stood out with vivid sharpness in the warm, diffuse light from the tree. His clothing and body language might be casual, but he was, for eyes that knew how to read the message, very much the alert Director of Torchwood London at the moment: a man used to giving orders, thwarting alien invasions and consulting with Presidents.

“Hello, Rose,” he said, with a pleasant smile. “Thought I’d stay up long enough to greet our guest.”

And to provide backup if there should be any problems, Rose knew. Unnecessary, considering they were surrounded by the mansion's usual discreet security, but his personal concern warmed her heart. She’d been a long time without a father and Pete had never expected to have a daughter, yet they’d grown into their new relationship and found it suited them.

Rose smiled back, knowing he would register both her appreciation and her lack of tension.

“Dad, this is Jed,” she said. “We met him while we were travelling. Jed, this is my father, Pete.”

Pete rose from the couch to shake Jed’s hand. Jed responded by ducking his head fractionally in respect. “How do you do, sir?” he asked, the very model of cowed good manners.

"Well enough," Pete replied, studying Jed without releasing his hand, no longer smiling. "I have to say, I'm not inclined to be very friendly with people who try bluffing their way into my home."

Jed had the good grace to look abashed. "The psychic paper was a miscalculation, sir," he admitted with a charmingly sheepish grin.

Pete relented. "In your favor, you came to the front door, and my daughter vouches for you. So does the Doctor. I trust their judgment." Point made, he released Jed's hand and turned to Rose. "Will you be all right on your own, love?"

"Yeah, we'll be fine," she said, nodding.

"Well, then . . ." Pete cracked an impressive yawn and relaxed. "It's late; best I got upstairs to your mum. She should have Tony in bed by now."

"Um, yeah, about Tony – he got downstairs to meet Jed; probably time for another Security briefing."

"Graaaah," Pete growled, covering his face with his hand. "And to think I have senior covert ops agents who don't believe me when I say my four-year-old could run rings around them." He lowered his hand and focused his gaze back on Jed, whose spine straightened perceptibly. "I don't know what your plans are, but you're welcome to stay the night, if need be. I've arranged for a guest room to be opened up. The blue one," he added as an aside to Rose.

"Thanks, Dad," she said, with an appreciative smile. "Goodnight." Jed echoed her with a polite, "'Night, sir."

"'Night," Pete said with another yawn and a lazy wave. He turned and left the room, pulling out his earpods as he went and stashing them casually in the pocket of his dressing gown. On the way, he passed the Doctor entering the room, and they nodded to one another. The Doctor was carrying Jed's bottle of wine, now opened, and three glasses.

Rose was reminded of the flowers she cradled in the crook of her arm. "Just a sec," she told Jed, casting around the room without spotting a likely vase (Mum would kill her if she used one of the antiques) but there was the bucket of water in the corner, waiting to top up the Christmas tree's stand as needed. She shrugged, and went to put the bouquet in the bucket.

"Not very fancy," she said to Jed, who followed her, "but it'll hold 'em for now."

Jed nodded absently, reaching out to finger a nearby branch. He broke off a needle and crushed it between thumb and forefinger, bringing his hand to his face and inhaling experimentally. He smiled, a small, reflective curving of his lips, very different from his sexy grins, and shook his head.

"It's a real tree," he said, sounding as if he didn't quite believe it.

"Yeah . . .?" Rose asked, made curious by his reaction.

Jed flicked the needle tidily into the bucket of water. "You read about these things, the old customs, but sometimes it's hard to believe anyone ever did that stuff," he said, by way of clarification. He looked up the length of the impressive tree, all glitter and fairy lights, and shook his head again, smiling more widely.

"Time travel's like that, isn't it? Shakes you up even when you think you know what you're expecting," Rose agreed, cocking her head and trying to look at the tree as someone from the future might. It was a fairly daft custom, when one thought about it.

Jed gave her an appreciative look, seeming glad she'd understood him. "Yeah." His face was unguarded and relaxed in the warm, golden glow from the tree, and Rose couldn't help but notice how very, very handsome he was. He was also, she realized, very _attractive_ , something she’d long ago learned was another thing entirely.

A ringing of glass-on-glass drew their attention back to the Doctor, who'd set the three wine glasses on the low coffee table so he could fill them. He looked up and smiled invitingly, settling on the sofa. "The toxicology tests were all clear, no surprises there. And it's a good year." He squinted at the label. "Next time we're in the vicinity of twenty-one thirty, we should pick up a bottle or two."

Rose settled next to him on the sofa, leaving the two armchairs for Jed to choose between. "Wine from a hundred and twenty years in the future?" she asked, raising her eyebrows at Jed, who was finally getting around to unbuttoning his long coat. "That's a bit anachronistic. Would've thought they warned people off that sort of thing at the Agency."

Jed shrugged, and tossed his coat over one of the chairs, settling in the other and reaching for a glass. "Given that I met the two of you in fifty ninety-eight, I didn't think it'd matter much." His clothing was, again, plain and unremarkable, suitable street wear for a great many eras.

Rose picked up a glass. "So how d'you know it's a good year, then?" she asked the Doctor, nudging him in the side with her elbow. "Is this another case where 'toxicology testing' is synonymous with you having a taste?"

"All in the interest of science," the Doctor said, taking the last glass for himself and swirling it under his nose, eyes closing as he inhaled appreciatively.

"Tsk. Trusting," she admonished, shooting a conspiratorial wink at Jed to indicate she was tweaking the Doctor, not him.

"My palate's good enough to pick out anything untoward before it could affect me. I wasn't taking any risks," the Doctor said with great dignity, eyes still closed, before sipping the wine and rolling it across his tongue.

Rose, unexpectedly blindsided by memories of other things the Doctor could do with his tongue, covered by taking a sip of her own wine, wondering if the room was really crackling with suppressed electricity or if it was just her. Rather than looking back at the Doctor and rattling her composure even further, she risked another glance at Jed. He was lounging in his chair, cradling his glass and watching the Doctor with a crooked half-smile that told her she was not imagining the sudden tension.

 _Ohhh, blimey,_ she thought, and took a bigger sip of wine. Back in the other Universe, the rules and boundaries regarding their relationship to Jack had been clear-cut and well-established, respected by all parties. But this wasn't Jack, she and the Doctor weren't the same people they had been, and here there were no boundaries at all.


	2. Chapter 2

"So, Jed Holbrook," the Doctor said, giving each syllable careful enunciation. He leaned forward and set his glass on the table, resting his elbows on his knees and bringing the tips of his spread fingers together in a considering gesture. "You said you were here to discuss a proposition. Shall we get down to it?" The last words were spoken with a rich, dark undertone, the one that made his voice sound like sex and chocolate mixed together.

Rose nearly dropped her glass. She’d been expecting the flirting to commence now, yeah, but the Doctor firing the opening salvo, and using the big guns to do it . . .? She took another, much bigger swig of wine than she had so far (at this rate, her glass was going to be empty in no time), her glance darting back and forth between the Doctor and Jed. Jed had perked right up at the Doctor’s tone of voice.

"I thought you'd never ask," Jed replied, breathy and flirty, but his tone wasn’t play-flirty, it was “preparing to get naked”-flirty. Rose’s stomach muscles tightened, and suddenly she could feel her pulse pounding in places other than her chest.

"Rose and I have a long-standing partnership," the Doctor said, managing to sound brusque and teasing at once. "An exclusive one, so far. If we were going to open that up and consider some sort of merger, we'd need compelling reasons. Someone with compatible goals . . . "

"And skills," Rose added, aiming for a seductive tone and at least managing not to squeak.

"Mmm, yes, quite," the Doctor agreed, giving her an approving look, his mouth curving into a warm smile. There was something dark and conspiratorial and a little mad in his eyes. It was very much like the look he gave her before they ran headlong into danger together.

"Damn. I seem to have left my portfolio at home," Jed replied, sounding not even slightly daunted. "Guess I'll have to improvise as best I can – assuming a practical demonstration is in order?" He gave them a half-smile that left no doubt at all about the talents he was offering for evaluation.

 _Guh._ This was here, this was happening, this was _real_. The Doctor was opening his mouth again, but Rose, galvanized, went into action before he could speak.

“’Scuse us,” she told Jed, rising and catching the Doctor’s hand, tugging him to his feet. “I'm sure we can work something out, but my partner and I will need to . . . consult for a minute.”

“Of course,” Jed responded with an easy smile and a generous hand-wave. “Take as long as you need.” He didn’t seem put out by the abrupt change of direction, Rose was glad to see. Glancing back over her shoulder as she dragged the unresisting Doctor towards the hall door, she saw Jed settle back in his char, sipping wine and radiating the complete confidence of someone who knew he was going to get what he wanted eventually, and could thus afford to take his time. It might have been annoying if it hadn’t also been so bloody _hot_.

She slipped through the door with the Doctor in tow, and closed it behind them. A quick glance in either direction down the hall revealed it to be completely deserted.

“I took care of Security when I was checking the wine,” the Doctor murmured. “They’re under orders to leave us completely undisturbed."

Security blackouts weren't unusual in Pete Tyler's mansion; Rose sometimes thought more clandestine (and effective) meetings and decisions took place here than in most major government buildings, often at odd hours. Pete enforced the secrecy of such meetings absolutely; for the next little while, at least, this living room was guaranteed to be one of the most private places on the planet.

Thank God, if the evening was going where Rose thought it was.

Rose raised an eyebrow at him. “So you were planning this from the start?” she asked.

They’d discussed their meeting with Jed several times over the past few months, including one late-night conversation in bed, where they'd ended up confessing to each other how strongly they'd both been attracted to their chance acquaintance, and speculating about what they might all have done together given more time. At first they'd giggled under the covers like a pair of teenaged mates comparing crushes . . . until speculating turned into doing, and giggling gave way to more adult activities. Very intense adult activities. The memory of how turned on they’d both been then by the mere fantasy was enough to make things low in Rose’s body tighten and flutter in anticipation now that the reality was within reach.

“Yes, of course . . . You _are_ all right with this, aren’t you?” His studied her face, concerned and questioning, “I thought . . .”

Rose huffed a short laugh. “That’s exactly what I was gonna ask you, actually. I know we’ve talked about it, but that was all what-if. I thought we should be sure, really sure, now it’s – _he’s_ – sitting in our living room, you know? And I didn’t expect to see _you_ moving so fast . . .”

“Why wait?” the Doctor asked, completely serious. In his eyes was a glint of the fey, reckless streak he’d acquired along with his partial humanity. “I spent far too long waiting for things, before. Now I want to make all of it count, while I have the time.”

That was about as close as he ever came to admitting he felt the new constraints of a single, mortal life. Rose knew it had to weigh on him, but if he didn’t want to dwell on it, she tried not to, either. So she smiled and reached up to brush his cheek with her hand, running her thumb across the bristly softness of his sideburn. “So I take it that’s a ‘yeah, let’s do it?’” she asked.

“And I take it that’s the same from you?” he asked, beginning to smile, his eyes going dark and anticipatory.

“Yeah,” she said, smiling even more widely, feeling a flush of growing heat rising through her body. “Let’s do it.”

The glint in his eyes flared. He turned his head to kiss the palm of her hand with hot, soft lips, watching for her reaction as he did so, and it was all she could do not to grab him by the lapels and shove him up against the wall.

Judging from the look on his face, the feeling was mutual. His hand slipped up to cover hers where it still rested on his cheek and he lifted it away with an affectionate squeeze before interlacing their fingers so they were clasping hands in the old, familiar gesture – the two of them together, united. Then he went serious again, the heat in his eyes banking itself.

“One more thing, since we’re talking it through,” he said, his voice low and earnest. “It’s gingerbread again. Really, really gingerbread. He’s not Jack, he’s himself.”

Rose’s heart contracted. “Oh, I know,” she whispered to the man she loved so deeply, who shared a face and a name with someone else but was not, _ever_ , a mere copy or reflection of him. “More than anything, I know.”

His face softened and just for a second there was the faintest sheen of additional moisture in his eyes, as there was in hers. “I love you,” he said, clear and simple.

“Love you too,” she said back, meaning it absolutely. They were silent for a moment, a few beats of their (single, human) hearts. Then the Doctor broke into a wide grin.

“Well, now that’s settled, let’s go give Mr. Jedediah Holbrook the interview of his _life_ ,” the he said, tugging her in the direction of the door.

She followed him so quickly she nearly trod on his heels.


	3. Chapter 3

Jed, hearing the door open and close again, sat up and craned his neck to look around the back of his chair. The Doctor let go of Rose’s hand and slipped his arm lightly around her waist. “Well,” he announced cheerily, “we went best two falls out of three, and Rose gets to check your credentials first. I’ll have you know she fights dirty.”

Rose’s jaw dropped at the Doctor’s sheer cheek, and she felt her face going pink (thank God for the low lighting!). She was filled with the urge to simultaneously laugh out loud and to strangle her best-beloved right there.

“Oi!” she said instead, elbowing him in his skinny ribs, none too gently. “I do not fight dirty! You’re just a pushover.”

The Doctor gave Jed his best traumatized-puppy eyes: _See what I mean?_

Rose huffed and shot a glance heavenward for strength. When she looked back at Jed, he was leaning on the arm of his chair, smiling and obviously biting his lip to keep from laughing. It was a genuine expression, not the smooth flirting he’d been doing a few minutes ago, and it made Rose smile back. But even as her lips curved up she felt a twinge, and not between her legs this time.

 _I like him. I really do._ It was the first, tiny, embryonic stirring of something big, something huge, something terrifying.

 _I could do more than_ like _him._

 _Oh, God._

She kept her smile even and told herself not to be stupid, to just go with the night and enjoy it: no false expectations, no making it into anything more than what it was.

Then Jed’s smile twisted a bit to one side and he set his wine glass on the table. “So,” he said, meeting her eyes boldly. “Where should we start?”

Lust was amazingly good at simplifying things, Rose discovered. The Doctor lifted his hand from her hip, releasing her and giving the slightest, encouraging push at the same time.

“Well,” she said, stepping forward with a weird sense of unreality, because this was such a wet dream come to life and it hardly seemed like it could be happening to her, “I suppose we could start by reviewing your strong points?”

Jed rose smoothly and stepped around his chair to stand in front of her; he was back to wearing his full-on confident smirk, which still managed, somehow, to be endearing, rather than annoying.

“I suppose,” he said, cocking his head to the side as if considering, “one of my main strengths is that I’m a people person.” He’d stopped so close in front of her she could feel the heat of his body, and she had to look up to keep meeting his eyes.

“You like people, you mean?” she asked. It was getting difficult to keep playing the game without laughing, even though her heart was beating very, very quickly now. The double-entendres she was spouting felt ridiculous, like bad adult movie dialogue, but Jed only nodded, grinning more widely, as if they were sharing a joke. She rather thought they were, actually.

“A lot,” he agreed, deadpan, but she saw the muscles at the corners of his mouth crimping with humor.

“What are your communication skills like, then?” she said, trying (and probably failing) to sound analytical. “How do you . . . _show_ people you like them?” She tried for breathy and coy on the last, but considered herself successful for just keeping a straight face.

Jed, taking his cue perfectly, slipped his arms around her waist, pulling her up against his body. “Like this,” he said, winning the cliché battle by a mile; Rose nearly did laugh aloud, but then they were kissing and she didn’t feel like laughing any more.

His lips brushed hers, testing, before returning for more prolonged and intimate contact. His mouth was soft and hot, and without her being aware of who started it, their lips parted and the kiss deepened. Jed's hands slid down and cupped Rose's bum; in turn, she slid her hands up his back, running her palms appreciatively along the broad, hard musculature. Her blood lit up with a fresh, intoxicating surge of desire, as if every cell was screaming in approval.

They broke apart and her first coherent thought was that at least Jed’s smirk was gone, wiped clean off his face. If anything, he looked a trifle stunned. His blue eyes had gone dark, nearly as black as the Doctor’s in this dim light. He was back to being gorgeous. Delicious, even. Rose thought she could eat him alive in about two bites.

She cleared her throat and made a feeble effort to keep the job-interview joke going. "Yeah," she began, in a voice that sounded rough to her own ears, and stopped. She cleared her throat _again_ , and said, "I think he's got potential." She looked over at the Doctor as she spoke, and whatever she'd been about to say next was blown completely out of her head.

The Doctor, having reclaimed his seat on the sofa, was watching them with heavy-lidded eyes and a smile that was simultaneously so sweet and so openly lustful, Rose was glad of Jed’s physical support. Any concern she might have had about a last-minute jealous reaction from the Doctor evaporated completely.

“Oh, carry on,” the Doctor told them both, back to using his sex-and-chocolate voice. “I’ll have my own questions later, but in the meantime . . . I’ll be taking notes.”

Rose looked back up at Jed, trying not to swallow too obviously. “Why don’t we, um, extemporize a little now?”

“Sounds good,” Jed said, and damned if _he_ didn’t swallow just then. “I do some of my best work off the cuff – or with cuffs on, as the case may be . . .”

“Show me,” Rose murmured, and stretched up to kiss him again.

Things went fairly quickly after that, but smoothly, almost gracefully, both of them aware of the Doctor’s appreciative gaze, which added a sense of performing some elegant dance together. Rose’s nervousness slipped away, as if she were shedding her worries along with her clothes.

Not to mention Jed’s clothes. She kept thinking he couldn’t get any prettier, but each bit of revealed skin made her revise her opinion upwards. With his shirt off, he was beautiful (and his nipples turned out to be gratifyingly sensitive when she worked them with lips and tongue); with his trousers off, he was stunning (a briefs man, as it turned out); and when he was completely naked . . . Rose couldn’t think of a word to describe it. Every part of him was so delightfully _proportional_. Nothing too big or too small when taken as a whole, all of him just exactly right.

Gratifyingly, he seemed equally impressed by the reciprocal bits of Rose. She didn’t feel she was quite in his league, but she was glad he liked what he saw. He was quick to find that her nipples were even more sensitive than his, and he learned almost immediately that trailing his breath across her skin was enough to make her grab him and snog him breathless.

There was only one brief moment when a tiny, still-sane part of her mind began to yammer on hysterically that she was about to have hot sex with someone she barely knew (by any normal definition of the term) in _her parents’ living room_ – in front of the _Christmas tree_ , no less – while the Doctor _watched_ . . .

 _Yeah, I am gonna do all that,_ the rest of her thought back, _and it’s gonna be fucking brilliant,_ which shut the hysterical little voice right up.

When Jed’s hand slipped down inside the front of her knickers and his careful fingers found exactly what they were looking for, she was past caring that the first touch told him exactly how much of an effect he had on her (so much for maintaining any illusion of being an experienced seductress), _or_ that she’d just hissed a heartfelt, _“Fuck!”_ out loud between her clenched teeth (she wasn’t normally a cursing type, even in bed), _or_ that the almost unreal perfection of their performance was finally broken when she almost managed to trip herself up and fall over in her haste to rip said knickers (the last article of clothing remaining to either of them) from her body and hurl them aside. She only cared about one thing by that point, and she wanted it immediately.

The furniture gave them very few options, since the chairs were all the wrong shapes and the sofa (even if it hadn’t been partly occupied by the Doctor) was far too short and narrow, so by default, Jed began easing her to the floor. Rose stopped him with an outspread hand against his chest and he paused obediently, looking to her for guidance.

“I’m not a big fan of carpet burn,” she explained.

Comprehension lit his features, followed by a confident grin. “That can be avoided,” he told her. A little maneuvering and he was sitting upright on the floor, easing her into position over his lap. Just before they touched he stopped, and it was Rose’s turn to look askance.

“Are you . . .?” he began, and Rose could fill in the rest of the sentence just fine.

“An implant and a clean bill of health,” she assured him.

“Me, too, actually, but it’s good to ask.”

Rose smiled at him. “Yeah. Thanks.”

A faint answering smile from Jed, then his face went still and serious and he finished guiding her into place. The first contact between their slick, overheated flesh made Rose groan, and she was dimly aware of the Doctor’s sharp intake of breath off to the side. It was good to know he was still enjoying the show, but that was entirely secondary to the glorious sensation of her body and Jed’s sliding together so perfectly, and the wonderful way the contact eased the needy throb that had been driving her insane.

When she had him completely inside her – her legs wrapped around his waist, his arms around hers, and her wrists loosely locked at the back of his neck – she took a moment to simply close her eyes and savor the feeling. _And we aren’t even moving yet . . ._

“Oh,” she whispered, since she had to say _some_ thing, “Oh, that feels . . . feels . . . amazing,” which was a complete understatement, but it was the best she could do. She knew she was grinning like an idiot, but didn’t care. She opened her eyes to share the moment with Jed, and what she saw changed everything.

In this position their heights were nearly even, so she had a perfect view of the expression on his face. She would have expected him to be grinning back, or looking smug over her reaction, or something equally cocky. Instead, he was watching her with an expression of longing, mixed with desperate hope. It was the look of a man yearning after something impossibly out of reach, even though he was buried hilt-deep inside her and couldn’t possibly touch her body any more intimately than he was now.

But bodies weren’t everything.

Rose, caught by surprise, couldn’t help the way her lips parted in surprise and sympathy, or stop the tiny “oh!” of exhaled breath that accompanied her shock.

 _How far did he have to travel to find us? That wasn’t a passing fancy._ Way _too much work for a quick shag. So what was he hoping he’d find when he got here?_

 _Jack wouldn’t have come looking for us, not at first. He would have just shrugged and gone his own way, if it weren’t for the bomb._

 _Jed isn’t Jack. Gingerbread, gingerbread, gingerbread . . ._

A shadow crossed Jed’s features as he realized what she’d seen. Their noses were bare inches apart, the intimacy of the moment incredible. Rose shivered, not with desire. They weren’t playing now, not anymore, and, she understood, for Jed it had never really been a game. The emotion she’d buried earlier swelled up in her chest, undeniable now, sweetly painful.

She brought one hand forward and smoothed a strand of damp hair back from Jed’s forehead, then ran a fingertip along the very edge of his lower lip, trying to let the tenderness of her touch say things that were too new and fragile to speak aloud.

“I’m really glad you found us,” she whispered, her voice unsteady, and she gave him a shaky little smile to let him know she meant it.

She could see her words sink in, see the way Jed’s desperate hope flared into something indescribable.

One of his hands came around to cup her cheek; he had such huge hands, even though they looked the right size in relation to the rest of him. His touch was as gentle as hers had been, saying very much the same things.

“So am I,” he whispered back.

Her smile went crooked. “And I like the equipment you’ve brought with you,” she added. “Cutting edge stuff.” She gave a small squeeze so he couldn’t mistake her meaning.

His slow, answering smile was like the first light of dawn after a long, dark night. It transformed his features in a way Rose hadn’t yet seen. _Oh, he just keeps getting lovelier . . ._ “I’m glad you like it,” he said, with an answering twitch Rose felt deep inside. “We should make sure it’s compatible.”

“Please!” she said, locking her wrists around his neck again for leverage, and they began to move.

It wasn’t a position for large movements, but they found a gentle rocking rhythm that was very nice indeed. Quite honestly, the subtlety was a relief for Rose. She was so hyperstimulated, anything more vigorous would probably have been downright painful. She let herself be lost in the movement and the slow rising swells of pleasure it created. It was gentle and dreamlike, and she found herself relaxing, completely trusting the man who cradled her. Why not? They’d already run together, laughed together, saved each other’s lives, and, just now, seen a little bit of each other’s souls . . .

When her need was finally too great, Rose shifted one of her hands, starting to ease it down between their bodies, but Jed caught her wrist, supporting her easily with his other hand splayed out at the small of her back.

“Let me,” he whispered into her ear. “This is my chance to show off. You just enjoy.”

She didn’t have time to argue, even if she would have, because that was when Jed reached down and touched her just _there_. It only took a few strokes before her pleasure finally crested and she came. Like the rest of their coupling, it was slow and dreamlike, but incredibly intense and powerful. Her body arched in a long curve, reaching farther and farther out into space as she let herself go, her head thrown back, eyes closed. Jed’s hand was a solid support at the base of her spine, keeping her from falling; she believed absolutely that he would not let her fall . . .

At the very end, another hand gently slid beneath her upper back; it was unnecessary, but welcome nonetheless. When she opened her eyes she saw the Doctor’s upside-down face. She hadn’t realized he’d moved in that close.

He smiled, which looked odd from that angle. “Hello,” he said, eyes pitch dark and warm.

“Hello,” she said, smiling back at him, lazy and sated, perfectly happy.

He leaned forward and kissed her, twisting his upper body a little for better alignment. It seemed perfectly right and normal, even with her body still joined to Jed’s and rippling with aftershocks.

When they parted, she swung upright and immediately kissed Jed, who responded enthusiastically. He still hadn’t reached his own release, Rose realized. To make up for her previous self-absorption, she began to work her hips, searching for their earlier cadence, but Jed’s hands quickly clamped down on her hips, stopping her.

Confused, Rose pulled back, searching Jed’s face.

He was gritting his teeth, obviously seeking control. “Nice thought, but I’m still only halfway through. I need to pace myself,” he said, breathing ragged.

“Oh. I wouldn’t worry about it,” she told him. “Far as I’m concerned, you’re hired.”

He blinked at her, then began to smile again, that slow, spreading, sunrise smile, and she knew he understood, and knew she knew . . .

“Oi!” the Doctor broke in, sounding deeply aggrieved. “Are you trying to cheat me out of my half of the interview?”

Rose, her back to the Doctor, rolled her eyes for Jed’s benefit. “Best keep him happy, I guess. Secret to a successful partnership,” she said, dryly. She heard the Doctor snort in response. Then, more softly, she told Jed, “Thanks. That was lovely.” She gave him one last, quick kiss, then shifted to disengage. The Doctor was waiting to give them both a hand up, and Rose noticed Jed taking note of the unexpected strength in the Doctor’s narrow frame.

The Doctor had discarded his suit jacket, tie and trainers, but he was otherwise still clothed. “Well,” he said, in his best prim-schoolmaster’s voice. “You certainly seem to have impressed Rose. But I have a few _pret_ ty stiff questions to put to you.”

Jed, to his everlasting credit, managed not to laugh. “I expect they’ll be very probing,” he replied solemnly.

 _This,_ Rose thought, flopping down on the sofa to watch, her tongue caught between her teeth in an expectant grin, _is going to be good._


	4. Chapter 4

Rose watched with fascination as Jed and the Doctor reached for each other; they were cautious at first, but they melted at nearly the same moment, the Doctor's hands slipping up to wind through Jed's hair and pull him closer into a very passionate kiss. It certainly confirmed something Rose had always suspected, but never been able to confirm from an outside angle before: the Doctor was a lovely kisser.

And Jed? Jed was a _gorgeous_ kisser. Kind of went without saying.

The Doctor and Jed resurfaced, staring at each other in an intense way that would have had Rose's hormones spiking if she wasn’t still floating in post-orgasm afterglow.

She thought she might recover a little faster than usual, though.

Jed reached up and ran a fingertip down the front of the Doctor’s shirt. “I feel like I’m at a disadvantage.”

“Really?” the Doctor asked, his expression a mix of maniacal good cheer and forthright sex. He stepped back a little and ran his eyes, very obviously, down the length of Jed’s naked body. “I thought you’d just found your portfolio after all. Still, I should make an effort to be a gracious host, shouldn’t I?” He reached up to work on his buttons, Jed joined in immediately, and they made short work of it. Rose had never seen the Doctor’s shirt come off so quickly before.

Even as the Doctor was dropping his shirt to the floor, Jed was tugging at the his t-shirt and vest (the Doctor was fond of his layers), pulling the lower edges free from the Doctor’s trousers. He began sliding the double layer of fabric up the Doctor’s torso, trailing the heels of his hands and his thumbs shamelessly up the exposed flesh beneath. The Doctor, eyes closed and lips parted, let him do it.

 _I wish I had a camera . . ._ Rose thought, nibbling on a knuckle to remind herself to keep quiet. This was their time, and she wasn’t going to intrude.

When Jed’s touch reached the Doctor’s nipples, the Doctor sucked in a sharp breath, already-taut muscles visibly tightening across his lean torso. His wiry build was a complete contrast to Jed’s, and the combination left Rose spoiled for choice when deciding where to look next.

The Doctor caught the edges of the t-shirt and vest and yanked them up and off; while he was occupied, Jed lowered his head to trail his lips slowly down the Doctor’s belly. Rose could see the bulge in the Doctor’s trousers from where she was. No doubt it was even more obvious to Jed, but Jed was clearly taking his time before moving on to the main event, because he reversed direction and began moving back up the Doctor’s body.

The Doctor, hair even more wild than usual now, ducked down and intercepted Jed’s mouth with a kiss. They straightened up again, and began seriously exploring one another, hands roaming, lips working . . . _Oh, wow. Now I know how the Doctor felt, watching me and Jed._

 _I_ like _it._

Jed’s fingertips slid partway down the back of the Doctor’s trousers, brushing an area of skin Rose knew from experience was silky-soft, softer than hers. It was one of the little, secret things she loved about the Doctor’s body, and it was delightful to watch someone else discovering it, too.

Without pulling away from their long, slow kiss, the Doctor brought his hands around to work at the clasp of his trousers; Rose heard the zip slide down. But, before the Doctor could go further, Jed had his thumbs hooked under the waistbands of both trousers and pants (boxers for the Doctor, Rose knew).

Jed pulled his mouth free from the Doctor’s and murmured, “Let me. Basic competence test, you could say.”

“Basic. Basic is good,” the Doctor agreed, sounding completely out of breath, and Rose bit her knuckle again, smiling. He didn’t get that terse unless he was having a very good time.

Jed skinned the Doctor out of trousers and shorts with expert ease; the little up-and-over hitch to avoid catching the Doctor’s erection in the fabric was beautifully done – but then, Rose expected Jed had a lot of experience with that move. As he slid clothing and hands down the Doctor’s thighs, Jed sank to his knees and finally turned his attention to the Doctor’s erection, teasing first with a puff of air, then with a long, narrow stroke with his tongue-tip, all while he worked the Doctor’s feet from his trouser cuffs, lifting them at the ankles to slip the clothing free, first, one, then the other.

 _Coordination bonus points for both of them,_ Rose thought, admiringly. The Doctor managed to keep perfect balance during the process, despite Jed’s distracting attentions.

Jed certainly knew what he was doing, judging by the Doctor’s reactions once he settled into his work. A Kodak moment if there ever was one, but there was more to it, too. It wasn’t anything specific Rose could pin down, but Jed wasn’t just showing off his skill. It brought Rose out of her voyeuristic haze, and reminded her of that fleeting, naked longing she’d seen in Jed’s eyes.

 _I hope the Doctor saw,_ Rose thought, blinking. She’d assumed he had. She wouldn’t have thought he could miss that moment’s byplay, especially if he’d watched her and Jed as carefully as she was watching the two men now, but what if he hadn’t noticed? Did he know what Jed was “saying” with his oh-so-careful pleasuring?

It was suddenly very important to her that the Doctor understand, for Jed’s sake, because Jed’s feelings mattered a great deal to her now, but she didn’t how to make sure.

Then the Doctor, eyes closed, his face both peaceful and expectant, brushed his hand over the top of Jed’s head, barely stirring the dark, rumpled hair, and the tenderness of it went straight to Rose’s heart. As if sensing her attention, the Doctor’s eyes opened and locked with hers. It was one of his Time Lord looks: endlessly dark, all the weight of his many long years clear to see, but in a way that spoke of wisdom and compassion rather than time and loss. He claimed he wasn’t as telepathic in this body as he’d been in his old one, but they still had these moments now and again.

 _He knows._

Rose breathed out a long, relieved sigh and smiled her approval. The corner of the Doctor’s mouth twitched up in response. Then he turned his attention to Jed.

“Full marks,” the Doctor said in a soft voice, gently stilling Jed with one hand. Jed stopped what he was doing and looked up into the Doctor’s face. From the way his expression shifted, Rose was willing to bet he was getting the full impact of meeting the Doctor’s focused gaze for the first time.

“I think we can move on to something more advanced,” the Doctor continued, sinking to his knees to mirror Jed’s pose. “Not to mention reciprocal. Give and take is very important you know. Team players and all that.” Cupping Jed’s face in his hands, he brushed a kiss over Jed’s lips, and it was a true lover’s touch.

Jed’s immediate, enthusiastic response would have broken Rose’s heart if it hadn’t made her so happy. _He’s been so starved for so long, he must have been . . . Oh, Jed._

Moving as easily as if they’d done it dozens of times before, coordinating intent with just a few touches and shifts in weight, Jed and the Doctor shifted to lie on their sides, facing one another in a perfect yin-yang formation.

 _Now that . . . guh!_ Rose was convinced any camera she might have attempted to use from that point on would have melted from the sheer hotness of Jed and the Doctor using their mouths and hands on each other at the same time.

The Doctor broke first. His head jerked abruptly back, lips pulling free from Jed with a champagne-cork pop just before his bared teeth clenched and his eyes screwed shut. The cords of the Doctor’s neck stood out in sharp relief, his hand pumping Jed’s erection in time to the jerking motions of his hips. Jed moved with him, throat working easily.

Rose practically wanted to cheer and throw confetti, but they weren’t done yet.

As Jed released him, the Doctor caught his breath, his hand on Jed slowing and then speeding up again. Jed made a small sound in the back of his throat, and rolled partway onto his back, giving the impression of an internal struggle. He was _still_ trying to hold off his orgasm, Rose realized.

“Your turn,” the Doctor told him, voice warm and velvety. “Time you proved how well you can take direction. You’ve exceeded all expectations so far, just show me this last thing, that’s it . . .” The Doctor’s graceful, ever-so-clever hands worked in smoothly in counterpoint to his caressing words. Jed made another strangled noise and then he was gone, his hips rising up from the floor with the force of his release.

Rose held her breath until he finished, then she was off the sofa like a shot, moving to be with the two of them; she wanted, needed, to touch them both. She knelt and ran one hand down the knobbly ridge of the Doctor’s spine, the other along the firm muscle of Jed’s thigh.

“You two are _amazing_ ,” she said, with total sincerity. “That was . . .” Since she couldn’t think of what to say next, she kissed the Doctor in celebration. He kissed back, happy and sweaty, obviously pleased with himself.

Jed was lying completely on his back now, limp and relaxed, arms flopped out at his sides. His eyes opened and he looked dreamily up at the ceiling. “I take it I’m hired, then?” he asked, his voice lazy and a little slurred.

“If you want the position, it’s yours,” the Doctor told him, eyes sparkling.

“It’s a great position,” Jed admitted. Then he grinned. Still looking up at the ceiling, he asked, “So, what kinds of benefits do I get?”


	5. Chapter 5

“Y’see,” Rose explained, gesturing with her wine glass and frowning as she searched for the right words, “we really _are_ just in it for the travel . . . Oh, ta!” The last was directed toward the Doctor, who’d topped up her glass in passing.

Following a brief cleanup session (courtesy of a packet of tissues from the Doctor’s suit pocket), Jed’s “interview” had degenerated into the three of them finishing Jed’s bottle of gift wine while they chatted and searched (not very urgently) for various scattered items of clothing.

“Yeah, I get that now,” Jed responded, nodding his thanks as the Doctor upended the wine bottle into Jed’s glass, pouring out the last few drops. “I thought you were putting me off, but you guys clearly aren’t wanting for money.” He gestured around the large, elegantly-furnished room, with its huge Christmas tree. “You don’t have to go looking for it . . . _there_ it is!” The last was directed at the floor. He bent down and retrieved his second shoe from under the coffee table.

“Nope,” Rose said comfortably, taking the opportunity to ogle Jed’s bum (still fantastic, even though he'd put his trousers back on). “All we end up looking for is trouble.”

“Oi!” the Doctor interrupted, glaring at Rose while he slipped his tie over his head for safekeeping without bothering to re-tighten the knot. “Trouble finds us, more like.”

“I’ve heard it said a person makes his own luck,” Jed told him, sitting on the sofa to slip his shoes on more easily. When he finished, he sat for a moment, contemplating his own toes. "Never had it work for me until now, though. Maybe I just have lousy luck."

The Doctor, who happened to be reaching over Jed for his suit jacket, stopped and bent his head for a kiss. Jed drank it in gladly. They were all three at the stage in a forming relationship where any touch was welcome, to be given or received, from the sheer, brand-new joy of intimacy.

"Well," Rose said when they'd finished, "If we ever end up strapped for cash, we can always sell pictures of you two on the Internet. I mean, _I'd_ pay."

" _You've_ got a free pass," the Doctor pointed out.

At the same time Jed said, "Why stop with still images? We could do vids. You'd have to be in 'em too. It'd increase our market by at least half." He winked at her, grinning.

She laughed. "What, 'Heiresses Gone Wild?' Oh, we could make a mint!"

The Doctor was laughing, too. "At least until your mum slapped me into the stratosphere. You know she'd blame _me_ ; she thinks we're perverse enough together as it is, and it's all _my_ fault . . ." He fixed Jed with dark, sparkling eyes. "A word of advice, mate -- never piss off a Tyler woman. You'll live to regret it." That wisdom imparted, he began casting absently around the room for any last, forgotten items.

Rose, who knew everything of _hers_ was accounted for, joined the Doctor in a visual sweep of the area, but when she came full circle back to Jed, he was still sitting there on the sofa, staring at her like he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"What?" she asked, starting to check all her buttons and zips out of reflex.

"No way. You're freaking _kidding_ me," Jed said, voice full of reverent horror. "Tyler. Twenty-first century. Pete, Rose, Tony . . . you're _Rose Tyler_? The _Torchwood_ Rose Tyler?"

"Um, yeah . . .?" she affirmed with trepidation.

"Then you're Doctor _Jonathan Smith_?" Jed asked, turning to the Doctor.

The Doctor's ever-expressive eyebrows went up in response. "That's what it says on my passport, yes . . ." He and Rose traded a quick, mystified glance.

"Are you telling me I just shook hands with _Anthony Peter Tyler_ and then had sex with his sister and brother-in-law in a room with a _tree_ in it?!"

"Brother-in-law?" the Doctor said, startled.

"Guess we get around to that wedding after all," Rose told him with a shrug. To Jed, she added, "So, what, we're famous in the future or something?"

"Or something!" he said, looking back and forth between her and the Doctor. "Even after the Data Crash of twenty-three fifty-two, the stories kept going by word of mouth. You guys are legends."

"Told you," the Doctor said to Rose, his half-Time Lord nose in the air.

If she'd been holding anything, Rose would have thrown it (gently) at him. As it was, she wrinkled _her_ nose and stuck out her tongue.

Jed was looking positively dazzled. "No, you are," he insisted. "You're the Defenders who saw Earth through the twenty-first century. You're . . . heroes." His voice went small on the last word.

"Your mouth to God's ear; feels more like a job from this end," Rose told him. "Do the legends mention the paperwork, too?"

Before Jed could answer, the Doctor jumped in.

"The twenty-first century always needs new recruits," he said, almost as if he thinking a new idea through out loud; he was frowning at a point in the air six inches in front of his nose, though still in Jed's general direction. "We've been discussing a private partnership so far, but how would you feel about something more _legitimately_ professional?"

Jed blinked. "What, me join Torchwood?"

The Doctor's gaze sharpened, focused, and pinned Jed in place. "Yes, that's exactly what I mean. How about it? Join us in defending the Earth? With a bit of traveling for fun thrown in?"

"I . . ." Jed fumbled, looking like someone who was caught between being utterly delighted and completely freaked out. Rose watched, fascinated. "Won't that cause a paradox?" Jed asked.

The Doctor gave one of his half-shrugs. "Not from where I'm standing, and it's a pretty good vantage point. Sometimes people seem to gravitate to a time outside the one they were born in. Almost like it's fated." The last was directed towards Rose, who understood. Jack at Torchwood in their home universe; Jed at Torchwood here. That was true parallel-Universe symmetry, and if it worked . . .

"What was the Data Crash?" she asked Jed, changing the subject. "Sorry, still working out the lay of the land here. We haven't been traveling long." _Not in this Universe, anyway . . ._

"It was a massive virtual viral plague; it took out ninety-nine percent of the existing electronic records right across the solar system," Jed replied, with a hint of textbook recitation in his tone. "Almost nothing survives from this era; everything got switched completely to digital and there weren't any hard copies to fall back on."

The Doctor cocked his head, his eyes dark and glittering; he reminded Rose of a robin taking a bead on a tasty worm.

"Lost records are a useful thing," he said. "Especially to, say, a man looking to avoid the Time Agency . . ."

Jed looked like his brain was racing. "Maybe . . . maybe you're right. The Agency doesn't normally come back this far, even to fill in gaps from the Crash. There's no need -- anything the Agency cares about starts a couple hundred years down the line."

Rose made a face. "Welcome to the Dark Ages, I guess. But isn't history all interconnected? Isn't it a little, you know, shortsighted not to take it as a whole?"

The Doctor shot her an approving smile; he loved it when Rose proved she'd been listening to his many lectures on temporal theory.

Jed shrugged. "Oh, yeah, definitely. But I don't make the policy. And I'm not gonna complain if it works in my favor . . ." He fell silent, and began slipping on his shirt, wearing the frown of a man thinking furiously.

"If . . ." he started, but just then the Doctor's mobile (he categorically refused to wear earpods) beeped.

The Doctor fished the phone from his pocket. "There's our wake up call -- that'll be Security, telling us we've maxed out our blackout time." He flipped open the phone. "Hello? Yes, we're just finishing up in here, thanks. We'll be done in another five minutes or so." He nodded at Jed, who began to button his shirt hastily.

Rose studied the carpet carefully, squinting in the dim light, then slid the coffee table over a few inches. "I don't think anyone'll notice, but that'll hold it till they steam-clean next week," she said.

The Doctor flipped his phone closed and gathered up the wine bottle and glasses. "We can drop these off at the kitchen on our way."

Jed retrieved his long coat from the back of the chair and slung it over his shoulder. "Well, if you guys can point me in the direction of that guest room . . ." he trailed off and raised his eyebrows.

The question of actual sleeping arrangements for the night occurred to Rose for the first time, and the thought of Jed relegated to a lonely guest room in an unfamiliar house sparked an immediate sense of revulsion in her. _He's_ not _going to be alone tonight,_ she thought, looking immediately to the Doctor. He was looking back at her with an expression she imagined was a fair mirror of her own.

"Conference," the Doctor told Jed abruptly, and he and Rose shifted hastily to the far side of the room.

"We've plenty of space," he started in an undertone, just as Rose began, "Our bed's big enough . . ." They stopped, and the Doctor said, starting to smile, "We're in agreement, then? Jed spends the night with us."

"You'd better believe it," Rose told him, firmly. Then added, to be fair, "If he wants to."

"Let's go find out."

"That was quick," Jed said as they rejoined him.

"Yes, well, unanimous decisions and all that," the Doctor said. "So, Jed . . . the blue room's nice enough, as guest rooms go, don't get me wrong, but Rose and I have our own suite, which is _much_ nicer, and we were thinking there'd be plenty of room if you'd prefer to join us there for the night. Plus, " he added hastily, "it's very private; we could keep talking there, or, er, whatever . . ." He ran down, and waited hopefully for Jed's response.

Jed looked at him, then at Rose, who nodded encouragement. "I'd like that," he said, voice slow and thoughtful, obviously not missing the offer's significance in the slightest. "I'd like that a lot." His expression lightened. "Besides, if we wanted to play out the interview scenario to the end, it _would_ mean I should get a chance to ask questions, too. And I can think of some good ones." He smirked at the Doctor and winked at Rose.

Rose laughed. "I'm looking forward to 'em," she said and turned in preparation to leave, but stopped when she saw the Doctor standing stock-still, mouth open, staring into empty air.

"Doctor? What is it? Timelines?" she guessed.

"Yes," he responded. "It's all changing, it's . . . oh, nice!" He grinned widely at nothing.

"Good, I take it?" Rose asked.

"The best," he said, with conviction, and Rose's heart lifted with delight.

Jed was looking back and forth between them again, but this time he was just looking confused. "Wait, you're saying you really can see _time_? I thought that part of the stories was made up!"

The Doctor snapped back into the present moment. "Nope," he said cheerfully. "It's completely true. Doesn't happen often, but if there's a major rearrangement, I usually know about it."

Jed rubbed a hand over his face and chuckled wearily. "This is gonna take a lot of getting used to," he said, and Rose's heart lifted another notch, because the words slipped so easily and unconsciously from Jed's mouth. On some level, he'd already made his decision. _No wonder the timelines changed._

"Next thing you'll tell me is that you're really half-alien, too," Jed added, dropping his hand and giving the Doctor a teasing look.

Rose and the Doctor's immediate, howling laughter rocked him back on his heels.

"Never mind," Rose told Jed when she had her breath back. Once again, she found herself wishing for a camera, but this time simply to capture the look on his face. "C'mon. We'll explain later." She took his arm and, with the Doctor in the lead began guiding him the direction of bed and (eventually) sleep.


	6. Interlude: "Safe"

It was the silence that woke Jed.

The background sounds and vibrations of his ship -- the idling warp drives, the hum of the life support, the soothing-annoying _tick_ of the sensor array that he kept meaning to fix but never did -- were missing. Those were the noises that told his resting subconscious that he was somewhere safe and familiar, so when his mind drifted up into one of the lighter phases of sleep, the lack of that familiar background snapped him into panicked wakefulness.

Force of will and habit kept him still ( _don't react, keep silent your life may depend on it_ ), but his thoughts were immediately racing, his heart thundering. _Where am I? Why was I asleep in a strange place? How much danger am I in . . .?_

His senses registered darkness, in addition to the deep, peaceful silence, along with bare skin, clean fabric, a soft bed, the familiar scent of sex and two warm, breathing presences, male and female from the sound of their slow exhalations.

So. Not an unprecedented situation, and not immediately life-threatening. He let himself relax a tiny fraction, only partially reassured. How had he been so careless as to fall asleep? Had he done so voluntarily? Should he attempt to sneak out immediately, or was that a bad idea? And who were these other people . . .?

Memory came back in one massive landslide, as it so often did.

 _Oh. Yeah._ He took a deep breath and released it with tight control, telling his body it could relax for now. Rose and the Doctor, right.

One kind of tension was replaced with another. It was still difficult hard to grasp how much had happened, had changed in one evening. He tried to run through things logically and put his mind in order.

The Tyler-and-Torchwood stuff was easy to gloss over and set aside. It simply didn't seem real yet, and therefore it had no true meaning. More problematic were the immediate, undeniable physical facts of the situation.

Sex was one thing, even really great sex; sleep was a whole 'nother ball game. He'd not only been physically welcomed by an established couple for an evening's pleasure (which didn't terribly surprise him, it being a common occurrence in his native culture), he'd been ushered into their private space, the bed they shared together, and _that_ was not common at all. Especially given the broad hints, even outright declarations, that this was to be the way of things for far more than one night, if he so desired.

He did desire -- so badly it hurt -- but he couldn't believe it yet. He'd learned to look askance at the gifts the Universe gave, searching for the hidden catch, the subtle sting in the tail. And even if the gift was pure, there was no telling when it might be taken back, cruelly and unexpectedly. That was the problem with being happy: it made the future a terrifying thing.

 _It's just one night,_ he told himself. _Who knows what the morning will bring?_

If Jed had learned anything in life, it was to take what rest he could get. Worrying himself out of sleep never solved anything, but a sharp mind and alert body could make a critical difference. He began deliberately pulling his thoughts and awareness into a single point, this one moment of peace. He was clean, uninjured, and pressed between two sleeping people who had shown him nothing but kindness, even when his armor had slipped and revealed things they could have used to their own advantage. He was safe, as much as he could be when he wasn't alone and on his ship, a million miles from nowhere.

For once, "alone" didn't seem all that preferable, all things considered.

 _You're safe,_ he repeated to himself. _Safe._ He began to drift, listening to the others' easy, measured breathing -- as reassuring, in its own way, as the familiar sounds of his ship.

He let their presence carry him back into sleep, slipping under its still surface with ease.

 _Safe._


	7. Chapter 7

When Pete, Jackie and Tony arrived in the kitchen the next morning for breakfast, Rose, Jed and the Doctor were already there, laughing with the kitchen staff (Tim and Shannon, today) and helping set the small table the family used for informal meals. The flowers Jed had brought the evening before added a cheery splash of color, having been rescued from the bucket in the living room and given their own vase on the table.

The Doctor sent the staff on their way early for a bit of extra free time before lunch, promising with his hand over his heart to load the dishwasher properly this time (Tim looked especially unconvinced, but didn’t comment), while Rose introduced Jackie to Jed and he said hello again to Pete and Tony. Jackie, clearly warned ahead of time by Pete that there might be a guest for breakfast, took Jed’s presence in stride.

It didn’t hurt that Jed pulled out his most dazzling smile for her. "Gorgeous ladies run in the family, I see," he said, which proved to be a brilliant, rather than cringe-worthy, opening; Jackie loved it, even if the Doctor rolled his eyes for Rose's benefit.

Rose smiled and tidied a few dishes into the sink for rinsing, while the others arranged themselves at the table, Jed slipping into the routine as smoothly as if he'd always been there.

Pete, cradling a cup of hot, fresh coffee, wandered over to Rose and leaned back against the counter next to her. She was instantly wary. The more unintentional Pete’s actions seemed to be, the more calculated they likely were. She shook water from her hands, dried them on the dish towel and picked up her own mug -- mostly so she would have something to keep her nervous hands busy during the impending conversation. She had little doubt about why her father wanted to speak to her alone.

Pete sipped coffee thoughtfully, then, without looking at Rose, he said, “According to the Security logs, there was a blackout requested for the living room last night, lasting about two hours.”

“Yeah,” she replied cautiously. “That sounds right. We had some . . . classified material to discuss.”

“Mmh,” Pete responded, a perfectly noncommittal noise. “Security also reported that nobody left or reentered the premises between Mr. Holbrook’s arrival last night and this morning. _Housekeeping_ reports that the blue room was never used.”

Pete finally looked at Rose, a sidelong glance that implied he was very curious to hear what she would say next.

Rose looked down into her mug, rubbing her thumbs across its surface, considering her response. At the same time, Jed and the Doctor burst into laughter across the room, drawing her and Pete’s attention.

Whatever had set them off, the two men were laughing wholeheartedly. Jed, shaking his head, rested his hand with open affection on the Doctor’s shoulder. The contact lasted a little longer than was socially typical for the twenty-first century (in either Universe), and when Jed dropped his hand again it wasn’t a clean separation, more like a trailing caress.

To Rose’s eyes, it was like a gigantic, blinking neon sign.

Pete, expression perfectly neutral, turned his sidelong attention back in Rose’s direction. This time, he added a raised eyebrow.

Vitex Board members and Torchwood operatives alike lived in fear of The Eyebrow. Rose fiddled with her cup. “We invited Jed up to our suite,” she said, which was perfectly true, if incomplete.

“To spend the night with you?” Pete asked, still dead neutral, but there was no mistaking what he was asking.

Rose felt her cheeks going pink. Sometimes she hated her body's automatic responses. Reluctantly, but refusing to lie, she said, “Yeah. With us. _Both_ of us.” Might as well head the next question off at the pass.

“Mmh,” Pete said again, and took another sip of coffee, turning to consider the other guilty parties.

Jed was doing his best to be charming towards Jackie, in a guest-to-hostess way, and Jackie was clearly more than willing to be charmed. Newspaper sections were strewn across the table (the morning paper never stayed intact very long in the Tyler household). The Doctor, taking a break from reading, was buttering toast and watching Jed over the rims of his glasses. The faint smile playing at the corners of his mouth was more than a little smitten.

Rose didn’t quite know what to make of Pete’s response. This Universe was fairly easygoing in terms of sexual matters, but multiple-partner relationships weren’t mainstream even here. On the other hand, Pete hadn’t gone ballistic yet. If only he didn’t have such a brilliant poker face . . .

“Um, don’t tell Mum?” she asked. “Please? We’d like to, I dunno, ease her into it.”

Pete shifted his attention back to her, full-on now, rather than sidelong. Both his eyebrows went up this time. “Me? Talk to your mother about this? Not for all the rice in China. You’re on your own there, love.”

“Thanks, I think.”

He smiled. “She’ll take it better coming from you than from me,” he said, reassuringly. “And it’ll help if your new . . . friend gets her to like him before then. He’s got his priorities right.”

“What about you?”

Pete exhaled and instead of answering immediately, turned to watch the morning scene playing out before them for a moment.

The Doctor was just passing the marmalade to Jed after dumping half the jar onto a single piece of toast.

“You’ll rot your teeth,” Jackie told him.

“I’m half alien. How do you know what my teeth'll do?” the Doctor responded before taking a big bite of his toast. It folded nearly double in his hand under the weight of jam, but he managed not to drip everywhere.

“Can I be half alien?” Tony asked while the Doctor chewed and swallowed. Rose’s little brother had been a bit shy at first with a strange adult around, but he was getting past it.

“Probably not. It’s complicated. We’ll talk about it when you're older,” the Doctor told him before stuffing the remaining toast into his mouth at a single go.

Jed was leafing through a newspaper section, wearing a bemused expression. “I don't believe this,” he said, inspecting the ink residue left on his skin.

Jackie sighed dramatically. “Oh, I _know_. That’s why I don’t read the news first thing in the morning,” she said, missing Jed’s meaning entirely. “I need my tea first.”

Pete chuckled under his breath, drawing Rose’s attention away from the cozy, if cockeyed, domesticity.

“I’ve long since decided that it’s far more important to be happy than normal,” Pete told her with wry good humor. “You look like you’re happy, so I won’t stress over the other.”

Rose smiled. “Thanks, Dad.”

“That’s what family’s for. Mind you, if your Mum pitches a fit, this conversation never happened.”

Rose snorted, but she was still smiling. “I’ll keep that in mind, ” she said dryly. “Let’s go eat. I want some marmalade before it’s all gone.”

“I’ve got a jar hidden in the pantry. I'll show you where it is later, if you like.”

Rose laughed. “Clever!”

“Pragmatic,” Pete said with a shrug, and the two of them went to clear some space at the table.


End file.
